262 .1. L. Bishop — The State Works of Pennsylvania. 



better terms, than any work of the kind heretofore undertaken in 

 the United States. 



The abundance of capital now seeking employment, and the liigh 

 credit of the State, render it almost certain that the requisite 

 funds can be had upon very moderate terms; and, in connection 

 with this part of the subject, your Memorialists would beg leave to 

 remark, that as the money will be wanted only in proportion to the 

 progress of the work, the debt, which it may be necessary at any 

 one time to contract, will not be large ; and no very long time will 

 elapse before the income of the navigation will itself relieve the 

 State from the burden of i)roviding for the payment of interest. 

 They feel themselves warranted, indeed, by experience, in saying 

 that it will do much more; that it will soon afford the means of 

 gradually extinguishing the debt which may be contracted, and 

 make a large permanent addition to the fiscal means of the State, 

 and thus be highly advantageous as a mere measure of finance. 



The Schuylkill ISTavigation being now happily completed, and 

 the Union -Canal in a state of forwardness, which leaves no doubt 

 that, with suitable public support and encouragement, it will soon 

 be finished, we may almost regard the communication between the 

 Delaware and the Susquehanna as already opened. From the Sus- 

 quehanna to the Allegheny and, Lake Erie, we are led to believe 

 that greater difficulties will not be found than have been encountered 

 and overcome in the works just mentioned ; and we are confident 

 there are none which the united forces of the Commonwealth, and 

 the means at her command, will not be sufficient easily to surmount. 

 The line of communication being thus extended, there will be a 

 continued navigation through the State of Pennsylvania, connecting 

 Lake Erie with the Delaware and the Ocean ! 



On the immense advantages to be derived from such a communica- 

 tion, it must be wholly superfluous to dwell. They have long 

 engaged the attention of many of our best and wisest citizens. 

 Thirty years ago the country was explored and the routes examined, 

 by which it Avas supposed the Eastern and Western waters might 

 most easily be connected, and efforts were made to commence the 

 work. They failed it is true, for they were perhaps .premature. 

 But if, with the spirit that dared at that early day to conceive so 

 great a design, there had been united the means which are iiow 

 possessed by the State there can be no doubt that their exertions 

 would have been cro^vned with success, and that Pennsylvania 

 would, at this moment, be enjoying the fruits of their patriotic 

 labors even far beyond what their most sanguine calculations 

 could have anticipated. 



Without adverting to the great increase of wealth and population 

 which has since taken place, and the consequent increase of capacity 

 for great undertakings, one single fact may suffice to show the differ- 

 ence in our favor. At tlie period referred to, there was not a 

 canal in the United States. There was not, it is believed, in our 

 Country at that time sufficient skill in civil engineering even to 



